Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to another pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. When Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn't really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together.

To break the spell, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks--all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic...and the growing romantic tension between them.

This was a pretty refreshing read from the ones I've been reading lately, for many reasons. I was planning to read these books for so long now and I'm seriously glad that I finally have got the chance to read this one.

The Setting.

B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. It's really well sketched. And it comes in between the plot so gradually, subtly and spontaneously that you won't feel like the author is giving some boring straight-cut description of a place. It's like you are seeing things all by yourself, I LOVED it! And not to mention the Middle-Eastern-ish setting and environment. I can't remember the last time I had read something with such setting. It is absolutely marvelous. Plus the cover. It has a kind of Aladdin-ish touch to it, which I simply loved, Aladdin being one of my favorites from my childhood. It brought me happy memories :')

Ananna.

So you give me a heroine. Badass. No nonsense. Who wants to be a pirate and no damsel in distress? I'll jump in that bandwagon!

It was a treat to see a lead like Ananna. She is forced into an arranged marriage with Tarrin, the son of Hariri, but she is not the kind of girl who would take that kind of shit in her way, so she escapes before the marriage taking place. Despite the threats of harming her family and being assassinated, she is determined to escape the fate she believes she doesn't deserve. She doesn't like being treated in a princess-y manner and believes that she herself is enough to protect her in any situation. She is not the girl to sit passively while shit keeps happening. Rather she is the girl who believes in taking action. I can't even describe in words how much fascinated I am seeing her character.

Naji. The Assassin.

Of course. You didn't expect the groom side would just forget and move on did you? Of course not! An assassin id hired to kill Ananna. The twist here, interestingly, is that the author attributes many heroin-ish qualities to Naji. No, he doesn't talk about hairstyle and shoes and nail-paints. He is possibly one of the rarest male-damsel-in-distress (since I don't know the male term for that) in fiction I've read about so far. Though his designation has a creepy and dangerous ring to it, as a character he is appears to be almost opposite of it. He can never get enough of his sulking and brooding over issues and griefs. Unlike other traditional fictional heroes, he is not sassy and confident about himself, his inner being. The guy's got quite the baggae and a big pile of insecurity blocking the way. I feel the author has taken quite a bit of risk in portraying the male lead as this, since this could have been either a hit or miss. but she seriously pulls it off pretty well, which is why I even liked the sulky, grumpy, I-don't-deserve-anything kind of Naji.

The Beginning. The Ending.

Okay. So no matter how much I don't want to point out any flaws, since I'm clearly biased with the book and plot and characters and all, I feel I should ( let's not get into any of the 'let's be practical' crap). For me, the book started out a wee bit slowly, not much, I admit. And also, I may have overlooked this if I hadn't loved this book so much, but when you love something you're supposed to expect it to be perfect, so yeah. It took me a little longer than usual to delve into the story. But more than that, the ending is what made me sad. I was looking forward to seeing a more, how to put it, 'complete' ending. It's like the author suddenly remembered she is supposed to write a sequel so this has to end her and now. But maybe it's just my greedy mind craving too much of a good thing (can't help it!)

But whatever, on a second thought, the ending is really not THAT bad. Seriously. Don't let my excessive greed for a good ending stop you from reading such a wonderful book. The Assassin's Curse has magic and mayhem, pirates, assassins, kickass heroines, pinch of romance all set in a very crafty setting, and that's not even the half of it. So get the book to read the first instance you can!

Hey! I’m Munira, a 20-something Asian blogger who loves sugar, spice and everything nice. Oh and I love some “Dark” stuff as well! My hobbies are to read, sleep, eat and fangirl over the littlest of things. I started my little book blogging heaven because I love to rant about books and authors and I adoreconnecting with like-minded readers from all over the world. Are you a book blogger? A reader? Visiting for the first time? Read the Long Rant about me to know more. Shoot me a tweet over at Twitter or elsewhere, I’d love to hear from you :) Are you terribly shy (like me) when it comes to talking to strangers? No worries! You can just silently stalk my online rants by subscribing to my sweet, sweet blog. Have a happy time :D